


An Ocean Apart

by viennasunrise (kteaanne)



Series: Earth-5486 [2]
Category: Marvel 3490, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-04
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-04-18 22:37:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4722956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kteaanne/pseuds/viennasunrise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jane decided to move her research out to London, Darcy didn't even flinch. It was the opportunity of a life time! True, Clint was going to be on a different continent, but she was sure they could handle it.  That was, until a demi-god right out of Norse mythology decided to try and take over the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Ocean Apart

It was the middle of the night and Darcy knew that something was wrong. Clint was supposed to call hours ago and she hadn’t heard from him yet. This long distance thing really wasn’t working for her. London was great… But Clint was on a completely different continent. Sometimes she wondered how Jane could stand that Thor wasn’t even on _Earth_ sometimes.

Just as she was getting ready to call Clint for the forth time (he’d better answer this time or he was going to be sorry) there was a soft knock on her door and Jane popped her head in.

“Hey, Darce… We need to talk.” Jane said, pushing her hair behind her ears. She padded across the floor and settled herself at the foot of Darcy’s bed.

“Do you know something? Clint won’t answer his phone.” Darcy replied, apprehension clear on her face.

“Yes. Thor just called me. Loki is back and he’s taken Clint and Dr. Selvig. Thor doesn’t know how but Loki’s enchanted them some how. They’ve abandoned SHIELD and no one can find them.” Jane looked apologetic.

Darcy’s phone dropped to the floor as she hugged her knees up to her chest. She dropped her head down, resting her chin on her knees. _Do not cry_ , she thought to herself, _he’s been in worse_.

“It’s going to be ok, Darce, Thor said they’ve found Loki. He was in Germany when the caught him. He promised me Dr. Selvig and Clint would be fine.”

“Well at least the god of thunder thinks things will be ok. His brother sure is an asshole.” She dropped her gaze to the floor, a plan forming in her head. “I want to go back to New York.”

“I figured you might want to. We have a flight back in three hours. Thor arranged for Happy to pick us up at Newark. I’m packed already. Want some help?”

“Yes”, Darcy said as relief washed through her. Her voice cracked and Jane pulled her over into a hug, stroking her hair.

“He’s going to be just fine.”

And that’s when Darcy lost it.

* * *

 

Three hours ended up being far too long for Darcy to wait. After she and Jane finished packing she paced around their flat, almost wearing a hole in the rug. She hadn’t felt this anxious in years.

They were able to board their flight without incident. It was late enough that the international concourse at Heathrow wasn’t too busy, which Darcy appreciated. She kept her hair down and her sunglasses pulled over her eyes. No one needed to see the smeared eyeliner and her running mascara. She really needed to pull herself together. She knew full well that this was probably not the worst thing Clint had ever dealt with; he’d had quite the life before they met. But Loki complicated everything.

Jane and Darcy settled themselves in for the five hour flight. They turned off all their electronics, and Jane pulled the sun shade low in hopes of sleeping. Darcy knew there was no hope of sleep so she ordered a scotch and pulled out her book. Either the alcohol or Stephen King was going to distract her.

Three hours into the flight Darcy was more tipsy than she was willing to admit and had finished her book. She had taken to ripping up napkins into smaller and smaller pieces as the anxiety built in her chest. Jane had been asleep since takeoff and there was no point in waking her up with two hours to go. Darcy would just have to tough it out.

She decided on trying to find something inane to watch on the inflight TV when her phone rang and she nearly fell out of her chair. She knew she turned it off hours ago, but it buzzed in her purse as she rushed to answer it.

“Hello?” she said, her voice gravelly from the booze.

“Darcy, it’s Stark. Listen, I don’t know what you know but Clint is OK. Natalia hit him really hard on the head and he’s back to himself. I had to hack into your phone.”

Darcy slumped into her chair as the anxiety and tension of the last several hours left her. “Ohmygoodnessicannottellyouhowreleivediamthankyou!” she spat out, her speech slurring.

On the other end of the line Stark laughed.

“Can I talk to him? Please?” she asked.

“Sadly no. I’m not exactly with him at the moment and I’m pretty sure he’s in medical. When I said Natalia hit him hard, I meant it.”

Darcy grumbled into the phone. “How did you even get my number?”

“Places. I’m filthy rich and burdened with an over abundance of schooling and sass so things just fall into my lap.”

Darcy snorted into the phone. “Whatever. Don’t abuse your power.”

“Roger. Stark out.”

Darcy dropped her phone into her lap and let out a huge sigh. Apparently she’d been holding her breath while on the phone with Stark. It didn’t matter. Clint wasn’t off destroying the world with Loki and she would be in New York in two hours. She closed her eyes in contentment and didn’t notice when she fell asleep.

* * *

 

Jane shook her awake when they landed and Darcy felt stiff from sitting still for too long. Which made no sense. The longest she could have been out was two hours. She leaned over Jane to get a look at the city and saw the wrong skyline.

“Um, Jane… Where are we?”

“Not New York. The had to divert the plane and the ended up taking us all the way to Chicago.”

“What!?” Darcy yelled, “Why!?”

“Apparently there’s an emergency in New York and they won’t let anything land on the entire eastern seaboard. Everywhere else was packed with emergency landings and diversions. Chicago was the only place left with a spot for us to land.”

Darcy’s eyes turned to slivers as she looked back at Jane. “When you say emergency are we talking about something the NYPD can handle or is muscles some how involved.”

“The latter. Apparently Loki didn’t stay trapped.”

Darcy huffed in irritation and began to gather her things up. At least she and Clint didn’t have an ocean between them anymore. Not that he knew that. She never got around to telling Stark that she was on a plane headed for New York and she doubted Stark’s ability to tell Clint they even talked.

The disembarked the plane and Darcy wasted no time turning her phone back on. She had three missed calls and one message. None of them were from Clint. She lifted her phone to her ear while Jane fussed with their carryon. They didn’t have time to pack much so it was all they had. Thank goodness. Maybe they could get a flight back east faster that way.

“Hello, Ms. Lewis,” a cold voice hissed in her ear, “I suppose you’ve heard about your bird man. Pity. He could have been a real asset to me. No matter. I have a message for you and Dr. Foster from my brother. He wishes me to tell you that he fought valiantly but I was too much for him. The mighty Thor has fallen and New York is mine. It’s too bad his avenging friends don’t understand that. I will so enjoy picking each and every last one of them off. And, just for you, I’ll keep the bird man—“ and the call fizzled out.

Darcy’s heart raced the minute she placed Loki’s voice. When the message ended the phone fell out of her hands; her palms were slick with sweat. All the snarky things in the world couldn’t get her out of this situation and she wasn’t sure she could tell Jane everything Loki had said… She was freaking out enough for the both of them. Jane didn’t need to know about Thor. It wouldn’t help anything.

She had processed this all quickly enough that Jane hardly noticed. Darcy bent down to pick up her phone and wiped her hands off on her jeans. She took the handle of her carry on from Jane and they headed off to find a ticket agent.

“What’s wrong?” Jane asked a few minutes later. She had stopped and grabbed Darcy’s elbow, pulling her around to look at her. “Why are you so white?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just exhausted and I hate Illinois. There’s too much wind. My hair always freaks out.”

“I don’t buy it. Spill.”

Darcy thought better of it for less than a second. If Jane wanted to know there was nothing Darcy could really do to keep her from it. Besides, Jane had told her about Clint. “Loki called me.” Darcy said, her gaze settling on the floor at her feet. “He… Here.” She handed Jane her phone.

In one fluid motion Jane hit play and put the phone to her ear. Her brow furrowed as she listened to the message but she cut it off before Loki could finish his threat. She locked Darcy’s phone as a look of rage crossed her face.

“We both know he’s lying. Thor defeated him on Asgard, in New Mexico… There’s no way with the other’s help that Loki’s finally bested him. He’s goading us.” She grabbed Darcy’s hand and pulled her forward. “Come on. We need to get out of here.”

Jane pulled Darcy out of the terminal and whipped out her phone. She hit a speed dial number and waited impatiently, her foot tapping away the seconds. On tap 37 someone on the other end answered.

“ Code Tango-Hotel-Oscar-Romeo-2-Alpha-7. This is Jane Foster. I’m stranded in Chicago with my assistant Darcy Lewis. Agent Coulson instructed me to call this number if I ever needed an extraction.”

Jane nodded along and answered a few questions before ending the call. She grabbed Darcy’s hand and pulled her back toward the terminal.

“We have fifteen minutes to get to the other side of the airport. There is a SHIELD detail waiting for us and they’ll drive us to the extraction point. They have a jet waiting to take us to the helicarrier above New York. From there we can get transport to the ground if we need to.”

Darcy couldn’t keep the look of shock off her face. “Holy crap! Jane, that was amazeballs. When did SHIELD give you a code!?”

“They didn’t. Thor told me his and made me promise to use it if I needed it.”

“Remind me to make him cookies.”

Jane laughed out loud and the two of them walked faster.

*  
The extraction went smoother than Darcy imagined… She had been hoping for some kind of secret agent style sneaking around but it was fairly strait forward. They were loaded into a black SUV on the tarmac and driven to a private hanger where they boarded a small jet and took off for New York. The flight should have taken three hours but they seemed to make it in half the time. Darcy was vividly aware of it even though her hands had been occupied with scotch since before takeoff.

The helicarrier was simply the biggest thing Darcy had ever seen and she was pretty sure it had to defy the laws of physics just to fly. They were escorted to a conference room on one of the lower decks and were promised that an agent or two would be with them shortly. From there they could decide if they were going into the city. Darcy had a feeling SHIELD wouldn’t tolerate it but Jane was determined and she tended to get her way when she got like this.

They waited for what felt like forever before the agents came to talk to them. They put up a pretty good fight, informing them that Agent Coulson had been killed earlier in the day by Loki and Fury was very reluctant to send anyone down. He maintained that the Avengers had the situation under control and that two unarmed civilians would do nothing but distract the team. The agents did, however, bring them earpieces so they could listen to the battle. Darcy jammed hers in her ear the minute they handed it over and switched it on.

It was fuzzy for the first few seconds and then she clearly heard Captain America’s voice shouting out instructions to the rest of the team. Natalia's voice came over the com and she thought she heard the Hulk in the background. Thor responded and Darcy could see Jane visibly relax at the sound of his voice. _Come on, Clint, respond!_ she thought to herself. Every muscle in her body was taught with anxiety and anticipation.

_“What else you got?” Ironman said into the his com._

_“Well, Thor’s got a squadron down on Sixth.” Clint replied._

“Oh, thank god.” Darcy said, rolling her head back in relief. She missed the rest of the conversation and focused on Clint’s voice. 

Jane and Darcy remained on the helicarrier for the rest of the battle. It seemed like it was going well right before it seemed like the stupid aliens would never relent and New York was going to either drown in their dead bodies or be smashed to death by the giant levitating alien worms. And then Ironman decided to play the hero and everyone, including Darcy, believed he was dead in space but had at least saved the world. Natalia managed to close the portal and something happened on the other side just after Stark disappeared because everything not native dropped out of the sky and the city seemed to be momentarily silent.

Ironman, it turned out, fell back through the portal just in time but Hulk had to catch him. In the end it seemed like everything worked out and, before she really knew what was going on, the team was on a quinjet headed back to the helicarrier for debriefing.

* * *

 

The team was in the conference room for what felt like forever. When they finally filed out Darcy couldn’t see Clint but Jane had managed to find Thor. He was fairly shocked to see her but pleased none-the-less. He dropped the hammer and lifted Jane off the floor, twirling her around in circles before pulling her down for a kiss. Darcy rolled her eyes. PDA’s were really never her thing.

She was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chest, when Clint finally made an appearance in the hallway. He was limping slightly and he had a cut down the side of his face. Judging by the way he was walking Darcy guessed he had at least bruised his ribs, too. She glared at him from down the hall and it seemed to take him an unnecessary amount of time to notice her standing there. His face relaxed when he caught her eye as he flung his bow across his back. She walked over to him and grabbed his hand without a word. She pulled him into the first unlocked door she could find. Free from prying eyes she slid her hands into his and leaned against his chest. He dropped his chin down on her head.

“Sorry I didn’t call.”

“Shh… Still trying to believe you’re alive here.”

Clint laughed and tangled his arms around her waist, pulling her close.

“Ew. You stink.” Darcy said into his chest, but she didn’t protest farther.

Clint laughed and pulled her in tighter. He lifted her chin up so she was looking at him. Her eyes looked a bit red and her face was all splotchy.

“Wow. I think we could win best looking couple right about now.” And he pressed his lips to hers.

The kiss started out chaste. Darcy just wanted to keep reminding herself that Clint was still alive and standing in front of her. And then her brain caught up to that line of thinking and she threw caution to the wind.

She jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. He laughed but caught her, turning around to pin her to the wall. A heat built up between them as Clint nipped at her neck.

“Lock,” Darcy managed to get out, “the door.”

* * *

 

“You’re bleeding all over me.” Darcy said, two very satisfying hours later. They were tangled together on the floor. A pile of legs and arms and ruffled hair. She was resting her head on Clint’s shoulder, her arm draped across his stomach.

“Head wounds tend to bleed a lot… Plus, I’m not sure what we just did is exactly a SHIELD recommended recovery technique.”

“Eh. I’m not complaining.” She reached out to touch the gash on Clint’s face, poking it to see exactly how deep it was. He winced and pulled away from her touch and that was when she decided naked time was over. Clint needed stitches.

She managed to convince him to go to medical by promising to wait for him in his quarters. She dropped him off in the SHIELD doctors very capable hands and bounced off to find some food. She hadn’t eaten since London and her stomach was threatening to eat itself.

The cafeteria was mostly empty, a few stragglers from the battle were huddled in the corner talking quietly to each other. Ignoring them, Darcy grabbed one of everything she could see on the table and headed back out to find Clint’s quarters. Not two steps out of the door a comment from the group pulled her up short.

“That’s what I heard. Loki did something to his brain and he went all robotic. Fury swears Black Widow hit him hard enough that he’s snapped out of it but I doubt it. He a freak on a regular day. I can’t imagine how he’s going to be now. Maybe we can get through to Hill.”

Darcy didn’t think, she just turned on her heels and walked back into the cafeteria. The first apple was out of her hands before she had a conscious thought about it.

“Listen, you jags.” She said, each word punctate with a different piece of flying produce, “Hawkeye doesn’t need your approval. And Hill wouldn’t take him off active duty. She’s too afraid of him. So I suggest you keep your idiocy to yourselves and maybe check the room before you start dissing on an Avenger while his girlfriend is in the room.” She chucked the last of the fruit at them and stormed out of the room.

Clint found her half an hour later in his quarters. She was still feeling huffy from what happened in the cafeteria, but decided to keep her cool.

“Lemme see the stitches, Frankenstein.” She said, leaning over to see Clint’s wound.

“Think I’ll scar? Maybe I’ll finally have something on my face that comes with a kick-ass story.”

Darcy smiled up at him. Clint was surprisingly at ease with what a lot of people would consider the worst-thing-to-happen-to-their-face-ever. She wasn’t all that shocked though, Clint tended to take things in stride.

“You’re still all nasty and I’m covered in your blood. Shower time.” She grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him into the bathroom.

“I’m starving. Can’t we eat first?” Clint whined.

Anger, hot and violent, boiled up in Darcy’s chest. The cafeteria would have to wait.. “No. You can eat later. I have something better in mind, anyway.” She tried pulling on his wrist again and he relented.

* * *

 

“Jane still has research to do in London. I don’t think I can abandon her yet.” Darcy said across the table at Clint. He had managed to get them off the helicarrier down to Stark tower where it was a little less crowded.

“It was just a suggestion.”

Darcy threw a grape at him. “I know that, idiot. We made it work for three months. We’ll make it work for another three. Besides, there’s no one in England with a scar as gnarly as yours is going to be.”

“Very funny, Darce.” Clint said, lobbing the grape back at Darcy. It smacked her right on the nose. She glared back at him.

Clint leaned across the table and grabbed her hand. He stroked little circles with his thumb over her wrist. Darcy looked back at him, trying to catch his eye.

“I freaked out when you didn’t answer your phone, you know. I sobbed on Jane’s shoulder for a good twenty minutes before I could compose myself enough to even start packing.”

“I don’t doubt it.” He looked up at her. “If you ever tell anyone I’ll deny it to my grave but I’m going to miss you. Very much.”

“Me too.”

Clint leaned in and kissed her on the nose. Somehow it felt more intimate than what had happened in the shower back on the helicarrier. It sent shivers down Darcy’s spine. She knew Jane was waiting, knew that she had somewhere to be. Jane had put her research on hold for 36 hours for Darcy and they had a flight back to England at nine. It was her fault they were running late. She turned her hand over and grabbed Clint’s wrist, squeezing it. He looked up and she took the opportunity to close the distance between their mouths and kissed him hard. If they hadn’t been in the kitchen and Darcy hadn’t been running late it would have led somewhere, but she had to go. She broke the kiss and leaned over to grab her bag. She ruffled Clint’s hair as she bent down to whisper in his ear, “call me or suffer the consequences”. She kissed him briefly on the cheek and walked out the door.


End file.
